BEISSEL, CONRAD

born April 1690, Eberbach, Palatinate [now in Germany] died July 6, 1768, Ephrata, Pa., U.S. in full Johann Conrad Beissel hymn writer and founder of the Ephrata religious community (1732). The posthumous son of a German baker, Beissel experienced a religious conversion at the age of 27 and migrated to America in 1720. He joined the Dunkers in Pennsylvania (1724) but withdrew from them when he became convinced that the day of worship should be the seventh rather than the first day of the week. The community that he organized and led followed his view that celibacy was a primary requirement for the religious person. (The religious community declined after his death and disappeared in the course of the 19th century.) Beissel published several collections of hymns, including Turtel Taube (1747; "Turtle Dove"), which influenced American hymnology.